Parliament to force MPs to declare allegiances

NOW that the hide-and-seek game seems to be over, at least on the part of the Government, it appears that parliamentarians may finally be forced to declare their hands in relation to possible dual allegiances.

Ronald Thwaites, the member of Parliament for Central Kingston, has been urging Parliament, since 2009, to have all members of the House of Representatives declare whether they have citizenship in countries other than Jamaica, and if they have permanent residency status in the United States.

Last week, Andrew Holness, the leader of government business in the House of Representatives, said his side considers Thwaites ageing motion to be of importance. The debate was scheduled to be taken last week, but Holness reneged on that commitment.

"The motion is of such importance that we would like to take the motion when we have in the House, the prime minister and other members," Holness said.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding is currently attending the United Nations General Assembly and is due home in October.

Reads Thwaites' motion which was re-tabled in April: "BE IT RESOLVED that every member of this Honourable House declares in this Chamber, his or her citizenship or permanent residency in any country other than Jamaica; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, as a matter of urgency, the Honourable House debates under what, if any, circumstances citizens with dual nationality ought to be excluded from parliamentary membership."

Until last week, we did not get the impression that the Government considered it important. Holness' response on the issue also begs the question: Where was Prime Minister Gol-ding all these months, if he thought it to be an important motion? Certainly, the argument cannot be that there was not space in the Parliamentary schedule to accommodate debate on the motions for if that suggestion were to be posited, we may be forced to ask if there is a parliamentary agenda.

There can be only one explanation as to why Government waited until after Shahine Robinson's shameless exit to take the motion. It tells the story about the conduct of parliamentary affairs along the line of political gamesmanship.

The precedence set in the Daryl Vaz case ought to have been followed and a self-respecting Parliament should have mustered the courage to look among it ranks and boot all strangers from the House. Since Vaz was booted and subsequently returned in a by-election, Gregory Mair and Michael Stern have been sent packing because of dual allegiances. They have renounced their citizenship, got the blessings of the electorates and are back in the House.

In the case of Robinson, she was not forthright about her situation until the court was presented with facts which forced her to step away. Opposition MP Ian Hayles is now before the court fighting to be left alone, arguing that he renounced his US citizenship before nomination day.

Sharon Hay-Webster, the MP for South Central St. Catherine, whose interventions in the House have been far from earth-shattering, continues to sit pretty despite admitting to be the holder of a US passport.

Politically flavoured

Assuming that people do not lie to save their skin, Thwaites' motion, we believe, would have gone a far way in ridding the Parliament of strangers. Mair, meanwhile, is spearfishing. He has justifiably taken aim at Hay-Webster, who has publicly admitted that she has a US passport. Holness said that his motion, which calls on the House to invite her to "renounce immediately her position as a Member of this Honourable House, in accordance with the principle of law upheld by the ruling of the Court of Appeal", would be taken at the same time as Thwaites'.

For us, it is encouraging news that the motions will finally be taken. But we cannot help but think that the Government's approach to dealing with this constitutional crisis is politically flavoured. It is clear that the Government delayed accommodating debate on the matter of dual citizens in the Parliament until the known infractions on its side have been addressed. To our mind, it does not appear to be the best way to govern. But we must have the debate. Once and for all, the strangers must find no place to hide.

thegavel@gleanerjm.com